My Journey Part 10: Reunited!

To say I was stunned would be the understatement of the moment. The strange calls and cackling led me to the campfire of four men (I know that as a trained Paranormal Investigation Specialist I should never assume a creature is actually human). They sat in a circle around the roaring fire laughing and cajoling, elbowing and slapping the backs of each other's heads, drooling on their shoes, spitting up and akwardly scratching themselves, along with various sounds and activities my personal dignity will not allow me to repeat. I misted up a bit, as it reminded me of nights in the UFO pit back in Angus Hat and OctoberFest up in Cut Knife. They were having a great old time. Their cries of "Biermay! Biermay!" were actually requests for beer, which they had in four industrial sized coolers. 
They seemed to be celebrating something - perhaps they were hunters acclaiming a good day of killing. There are many hunters in Saskatchewan, or more precisely, there are lots of people with guns. During hunting season and most Saturday nights you can hear guns going off all around Angus Hat. I personally own a gun; an 1839 Pepperbox. My great great great grand uncle Olaf von Puddenbottam was it's original owner. He owned it for a very short time. He was wondering if it actually had pepper in it and tried to shake some on his Kartoffelbrei ; when none came out he looked into the barrel and the rest, as they say, is family history.
I decided that I had to act. Years of training as a Paranormal Investigation Specialist has sharpened and honed me into a veritable communication  machine! They looked like nice enough fellows so I calmly approached them shaking and waving my hands up in the air, yelling at the top of my lungs to reassure them that I was coming in peace. I hadn't realized it (there are no natural mirrors in a bog), but I was covered with a week's worth of dirt, mud and moss, so naturally their reaction was quite shocking: Although all four were heavyset men, they all fell backwards onto their knapsacks and pulled out some fearsome looking equipment. I began to flail my arms wildly and make whooping sounds, hoping this would make them feel at ease, but they quickly took up positions around me and pointed their.....Cameras? I was astonished!
My first thought was to communicate with them so I chose to call out in German. I unfortunately hadn't spoken German since I did the zingshpiel recitatives from Tannhauser with my mom, so it came out as drivel (ironically, that's what some say about Wagner). The scene became tense. They tried to outflank me, but my flanks are quite substantial. Then one of them pulled out a rope and fashioned it into a loop, which made me think that they were Supreme Court judges on vacation, looking to bypass the system. Another one whipped out a long metal tube and pointed it at me. He blew into it and then everything faded to black.
When I regained consciousness, I was sitting upright next to - a giant badger? It was Pearly!
(To be continued)